Shuffle
by Kari Kurofai
Summary: For the Ipod/MP3 shuffle cahllenge. 10 small TigerFire oneshots


Shuffle Challenge

**So I saw RaikouArashi doing this, so I wanted to do one too! :] P.S. it's TigerFire**

**Goodbye To You**

The stars looked exactly the same as they had any other night. They should have been different, or just not there at all. There weren't any missing or any new ones. But there should have been. There should have been.

Firestar's eyes glazed over, and he turned away from the sky. "You're not a star . . . Are you," he whispered quietly. Shaking his head, he tried to clear the vision of blood from his mind. Blood on the sacred ground of Fourtrees, blood staining his own paws. "Cat's that have sinned like that . . . Can't become stars . . ."

He tilted his head back towards the stars, smiling slightly, "So, I wonder . . . Could a star ever tread the darkness where you'll walk from now on? I can try . . ."

A star shot through the heavens, vanishing on the horizon, and he blinked in surprise. "Maybe . . . Maybe you're like that. A fallen star."

**Love Song Requiem**

Tigerclaw turned his back on his clanmates, glancing only once over his shoulder as he left. But once was enough, and Starclan, he never should have looked.

Emerald met amber, and his heart lurched at the look of betrayal reflected in the Kittypet's eyes. He flinched away from the gaze and continued to walk away.

There could be no more turning back.

_Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me . . . I'm doing what I think is right . . ."_

**With Me**

Fireheart bounded headlong across the newly fallen snow. He'd never seen the stuff before, this was his first winter. But he found it beautiful. Tiny crystals that turned the world into a glistening white.

"You're going to scare all the prey away carrying on like that," a deep voice mewed calmly from behind him.

The ginger tom turned, flinging himself at the large tabby tom with a playful yowl. Startled, Tigerclaw lost his balance as Fireheart crashed into him, and the pair tumbled head over heals down the slope towards the clearing of Fourtrees.

The older tom shifted his weight so that he landed on top of the firry warrior in a flurry of snow. "You mousebrained Kittypet," he hissed, "are you _trying_ to make enough noise for Thunderclan to starve for a week?"

Fireheart laughed beneath him, not replying. "I've never seen snow before, it's beautiful," he mewed quietly.

A smile flickered in amber eyes for a moment. "Stupid Kittypet," Tigerclaw murmured, pressing his nose briefly to Fireheart's before he leapt off him, padding away through the snow drifts.

**Someday**

_A dying warrior the way will show._

He hadn't believed it when they told him a star had fallen from the sky, lighting a path over the mountains. Why should a Starclan warrior sacrifice themselves for a journey meant for the living?

And he still wouldn't believe it the entire journey through the mountains.

But when they reached the other side, when the darkness surrounded them and the stars had all but vanished in the coming light of dawn, he knew they had not lied.

He'd led the clans over the ridge, following the faint scent he couldn't believe he was smelling. And as he came over the ridge, he was standing there, bathed not in the glow of Starclan, but rather in the grays and blacks of a darker place.

Firestar said nothing, he knew he was the only on e who could see this cat. But he drew up beside him, fur brushing ghostly fur. And the amber eyed tabby pointed with his tail to the light and stars reflected in the lake below.

A fallen warrior had lead them here.

**Wherever You Are**

"He's barely breathing! Firestar, hang in there! We're calling Jayfeather now . . ."

The ginger warrior hardly heard their words, sounding muffled and broken in his ears. His vision swam with the blood pooling out beneath him, and he blinked his eyes closed to melt the sight away.

"Are you going to sleep there forever Kittypet?"

Firestar's eyes snapped open, and he tilted his head to catch the amber gaze with a faint smile. "You're here . . ."

Sandstorm stared at her mate in alarm, "Graystripe, what's he talking about? He's staring off towards the trees and-"

"Hush," the gray furred warrior silenced her with his tail over her mouth.

"You cam back . . . For me . . . I didn't think you would," Firestar mewed quietly, his voice breaking as the words came out.

"Of course," the dark tabby murmured, touching his nose to the Thunderclan leader's head.

"It hurts . . . So bad . . ." Firestar whispered.

"I can take it all away," Tigerstar promised, "if you're ready."

"Yes. I'm not afraid . . . To die . . ."

"Firestar!" Sandstorm yowled, darting forward in alarm as the last breaths left him. But it was too late. The hero of Thunderclan was gone.

**Cherish**

"Why is this glass here?" Firestar whispered, gazing through the thick wall of the twoleg substance. He recognized it from when he'd lived with the housefolk, countless seasons ago. But he'd never thought he'd find it here. In Starclan's territories.

He walked the length of the wall, up and down through the darkness on a never ending path. There was no way around it, no way over it. And as he padded along, he was startled to see a cat standing on the other side.

Emerald met amber, and Firestar pressed his forehead to the glass as the other cat took a step forward to do the same.

_This glass is meant to separate us . . ._

He stood on his hind paws, clawing desperately at the clear pane, to no avail. It remained unbroken, untouched. The other cat's eyes narrowed in regret.

Firestar pressed his head to the glass again, anguish gripping him. And though he knew that the tabby warrior wouldn't be able to hear him, he spoke the words anyways.

"Will you stay with me? Even though we are forbidden to touch?"

"Always," Tigerstar breathed.

**Sorry For Love**

Firestar pressed his nose into the cold, blood-soaked fur as tears filled his eyes. He'd never realized it. And now it was too late. Cat's can't come back from the dead.

If he could do it over, he'd give everything he had now. Everything. But he couldn't.

Instead, he mourned alone in the cold Leaf-Fall air as darkness fell. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

_I love you._

**Never Had A Dream Come True**

He'd dreamed of padding through thick undergrowth, stalking prey, and looking at the stars overhead. He'd never thought it would become his reality.

Except this time, he walked shoulder to shoulder with, and in the paw prints and shadow of someone else. Dark and light, amber and emerald, tiger and fire. It was what they were. What they were meant to be.

His heart was owned by the other, and vise-versa. They wanted the same things, but their methods were different. Too different.

The reality that was a dream shattered. And it could never be restored.

So the dream became his reality. A place where amber still met emerald, and blood didn't stain their paws. A place the stars couldn't touch.

A dream just for the two of them.

**Heartbeat**

Firestar walked along the lakeshore, watching as the water wiped away his paw prints seconds after he made them. His steps were slow and tired, weary of life.

He blinked, noticing that another set of paw prints stretched out on the sand in front of him. He placed a paw in one, noticing the difference in size, and the way the claws extended enough to show on the print. It had been many long, painful seasons since he'd seen prints like these.

He smiled slightly, placing his paws in each print as he continued on his path, mirroring the trail they left. Until his body felt lighter, stronger than it had been in years.

The paw prints extended upwards, and still he followed. Tracing the indentation sin the darkening sky with ease, until he could no longer find the trail.

A tail twined with his, and shoulder touched shoulder. But he wasn't afraid as a deep voice purred comforting words in his ear. "Let's go . . . Together . . . Just you and me . . ."

"Yes," Firestar breathed back.

**Downfall**

It wasn't so much as revenge as it was intense loneliness. A longing for the days when innocence was taken for granted, and bloodstained paws and hearts were a distant future. When tails would intertwine on accident, and laughter hid inside amber and emerald eyes.

It wasn't as if Firestar fought against it. He merely stood by and watched, though it was his own life. Death had not been something he'd feared for many seasons. He did not struggle in the fox trap, or hesitate to save a kit from a falling tree. And he hid the number of lives he'd lost from the rest of his clan.

He'd become half of who he was, though others could not name the time when he'd lost the half they could not see. They'd never seen it. Just as they couldn't see the blood and amber eyes that were scarred into his mind.

It was a silent vow. A promise of release for the fallen warrior, and Starclan's chosen. A pact made to walk the lines between light and dark for eternity.

RANDOM AUTHOR RAMBLE

D: this was haaaarrrddd . . . And I did most of it during school, I can write faster than I type. :] might be slightly cheating tho, specially when I couldn't read my own handwriting afterwards. *thumbs up* so I hope u all likey! And for those of u waiting for GFC and IS, they're coming, gomen! I'm super busy and can only pump out oneshots at the mo, since I don't let my beta's see them . . . *snerk*


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